August 19, 2020, by Ruth Musson

New state of the art experimental plant research facility

Check out our new state of the art experimental research facility. The University of Nottingham School of Biosciences is a world leader in fundamental and applied plant science research. Increasing yield and quality of crops is a great challenge in the face of climate change. We need to develop resilient crops that consume less resources whilst still being productive. To do this we need a means of growing plants in precisely controlled conditions.

The new equipment provides an experimental research facility that  simulates the natural growing environments  of plants. This could be anywhere in the world and in the past present or future. We can grow plants and crops for any research project in precisely controlled conditions of humidity, temperature and light intensity. These new facilities provide a big step up in our research standards.

In addition, we can also integrate plant measurement sensors (phenotyping) to see how plants are growing and functioning in real time. New software allows us to take data  from weather stations around the world, and feed it into these systems. This will replicate day to day, or even minute to minute growing conditions in say, Mexico, China or the Philippines.

 

We also have the capability to reproduce both future predicted and past climate environments by changing CO₂ levels during growth. So as well as growing plants for research in precise replicated conditions which was the norm it is now also an experimental research facility.

If you want to learn more about our research in the School of Biosciences see here  or  visit our  plant and crop research pages

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Google+
• Share on LinkedIn